On behalf of the Photography Life team, I'd like to wish all of our readers a wonderful holiday season spent with friends, family, and loved ones. May the rest of your 2025 and the New Year be filled with good times and great photos.

The original Peak Design Travel Tripod made some serious waves when it launched five years ago. One sign of its success? Not long after its release, the market started to fill with models suspiciously inspired by its design. More recently, Peak Design built on that momentum by introducing three larger, more robust siblings. Today I’ll take a closer look at the smallest of the trio — the Peak Design Pro Lite.

This week, while working on an article about Silver Efex, I wanted to remind myself what true analog photography looked like. So I dug deep into my closet, pulled out a historical hard drive, and carefully brought it back to life. As it started spinning, it took me back to my younger days, where I found a photo waiting to be discovered in a quarter-century-old folder: a photo of my dad and two very unlucky carp contemplating the desperate situation they had found themselves in for the sake of our holiday traditions.

It’s been a very long time since I last wound film onto a developing reel in a darkroom, mixed my developer, tempered it to the precise temperature, and then—like some alchemist—developed the film. Still, I can vividly recall those moments and, later, the excitement of darkroom printing under dim red light. But enough nostalgia. I gave away my darkroom gear long ago, and the smell of developer has been replaced by coffee sitting next to the computer on which I now edit black-and-white photographs using DxO Silver Efex.

This morning, Viltrox announced that their 35mm f/1.2 LAB lens is now available for the Nikon Z System at a price of $999. I'm here to share my field review of this lens with you and answer questions about its build quality, performance, and more.

When someone says “sports photographer,” many of us probably imagine a row of long telephoto lenses crammed together in the corner of a stadium. In some ways, that image isn’t far from the truth. But there are sports that don’t have boundaries, safety nets, or predictable arenas — sports that take place in conditions most photographers will never experience.

We live in an age of extreme specialization. There are experts in bird bioacoustics, bacterial flagella, coprophagous insects. Even we photographers tend to pigeonhole ourselves as wildlife photographers, street photographers, sports photographers, landscape photographers, and who knows what else.

After the camera and lens, the next most essential tool for photographers is the tripod. Although I often dislike tripods because they take up so much space in my bag, the stability they provide is unmatched. Recently, I had the opportunity to test the Heipi K32 with the KB60 ballhead, a combination specifically designed for wildlife photography. How did it perform?

As humanity, we reportedly take more than five billion photos every single day, upwards of two trillion in a year. The most photographed subject in this enormous ocean of pictures? People and our faces. It’s no surprise, then, that the most crowded niche in the world of prime lenses is portrait glass. And indeed, among full-frame primes across brands, the 85mm focal length dominates by a wide margin.

Perhaps the most common mistake of a bird photographer (and not just beginners) is focusing too much on the feathered subject itself. It’s much like the tunnel vision of a hunter, and in fact, photographing animals can be compared to hunting in many ways. Well… at least right up until the final moment.

This week, while testing a new tripod in the dark aviary at Prague Zoo, I recalled the words that once slipped out of my mouth when I refused to leave a photo spot and admit that the day was over. I said it as a joke, but it pretty much sums up why some of us lug around heavy and clumsy telephoto lenses. “Do you know what the advantage of f/2.8 aperture is?” I asked my friends, who were slowly packing up their slower lenses. “That you can use it.” A few turns of the aperture, and you can keep shooting where a slower lens can’t. However, we pay a hefty price for those few minutes at the end of the day! But enough philosophizing – it’s time to take a look at this week’s photography news.

Few things improve video quality more than good, continuous light sources. Although traditional video lights are bulky, recently there's been a rise of small, portable devices that can provide light for video pretty much anywhere. In this review, I'll be telling you about the K&F Concept RGB Video Light.

Few genres of photography are as unpredictable as wildlife photography. You can spend days in the most biodiverse place on the planet, like Amazon rainforest, and come home without a single decent photo. On the other hand, you may find yourself making a random stop while driving home from work and end up with one of your favorite photos. It has to be said, moments resembling the first scenario tend to outnumber the latter. But every now and then, instead of the usual famine, a genuine feast arrives.

Yesterday, Sony announced the a7 V - faster and smarter than the a7 IV, while still sharing much of its DNA. The Sony a7 V features a 33 megapixel partially-stacked sensor, a new BIONZ XR2 processor, pre-capture RAW, and more. Here's what you should know!

Photographing wildlife is much more than just capturing the subject, no matter how spectacular it may be. What follows is a reflection on how a single quote from a master photographer, along with studying his work, shaped my approaches to photography and to nature.

About half a year ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a few weeks in South America with the exceptional photographer Magda Straková. In the traditionally male-dominated world of wildlife photography, her presence brought a refreshing balance to our group. She kept spotting interesting subjects in places where my eyes completely overlooked. During that trip, Magda and I filmed the first segments of an interview that we plan to continue later this week. Its central theme will be “thinking out of the box,” and you’ll be able to watch it soon.

I'm excited to bring you two announcements today! First, I just updated our "Photography Basics" eBook to add a new chapter covering camera equipment, which all Photography Life Silver and Gold Members can download for free. Second, we’ve launched a major sale through Cyber Monday for new members who join our page.

I've gone looking through the many photography deals available today to bring you the best of the best. Here are the sales that stood out to me the most! *This article was updated the afternoon of Black Friday to add more software deals and third-party lens deals.*

Two years ago, under the growing backdrop of AI and increasingly aggressive online ads, our team at Photography Life decided to have a call with one another. We talked about many things, including our worries for the future and what photography education would look like in the next few years. That day, we decided instead of continuing to rely on advertisements to sustain our site, we would eliminate our ads and start offering exclusive paid content on a member page instead.

I've updated my holiday gift guide with new items and up-to-date prices. If you want some ideas to add to your Christmas list, or if you're shopping for any fellow photographers during the holiday season, this list has got you covered!

Last week, I brought you some ideas on how to photograph hummingbirds, plus interesting facts about hummingbird biology. I think photographers should always try to learn as much as possible about their subjects in order to take better photos. So, today, I'm bringing you Part Two on photographing hummingbirds.

When photographing action with a long telephoto lens, speed is everything. Even saving a fraction of a second could be the difference between a missed shot and the photo we are looking for. To that end, there is one programmable button that I find very helpful as a wildlife photographer – a “quick return” that gives the camera a better starting point to begin its autofocus. I’ll explain how it works in this article.

More than 100,000 people filled the streets of Prague this Monday to commemorate the anniversary of the so-called Velvet Revolution. Thirty-six years ago, on November 17th, communist police violently suppressed a peaceful student march in these very streets. Thanks to the courage of those who protested back then, my country can enjoy democracy today. Unfortunately, now—just as in many other parts of the world—democracy in the heart of Europe is facing serious tests, and recent elections have dealt the cards in a way that raises concerns. But for now, we can still take to the streets and freely express our opinions. Let’s hope it stays that way, and not only here in Europe.

Hummingbirds are undoubtedly some of the most popular birds in the world. What makes them so beloved? First of all, there are no ” bad guys” among them that would threaten humans, their crops, or domestic animals. What’s more, where they live, they provide irreplaceable services as pollinators for many plants. And as if that weren’t enough, they are also immensely interesting, beautiful, and gifted with flying abilities that are unparalleled in the world.

At Photography Life, we try to bring you good photography deals as we find them, and of course we're approaching the big season for sales. So I hope you'll forgive a brief rant from me on that subject today, because I'm getting sick of how Black Friday keeps encroaching on more days every year.